Ever since I was in the fifth grade, I have known that I wanted to go into journalism in some form for a career.
A few years later I knew that I wanted to write about musicians and artists because I thought it would be amazing to get to tell people’s stories. I continued to read all of my favorite publications, while taking the time to research the bands that I was obsessed with at the time in order to learn about them and their stories.
Once I was in high school I received a letter telling me that I had been invited to be a part of a journalism and media conference at George Mason University. I worked really hard to raise the funds needed so that I could attend this conference and be sure that I wanted to be a journalist.
Eventually I made enough money and drove all the way to Fairfax, Virginia with my family. On that trip I not only fell in love with the George Mason campus, but also the field of journalism. I came back to Wyoming with the idea that I would not be attending UW because I thought George Mason was made for me.
After some finances were figured out, it turned out that George Mason was out of the question so I started looking into more information on the journalism program at UW. I was pleasantly surprised with how great the journalism program actually was and started to get pretty excited to come up to Laramie for college.
After my first year at UW I was absolutely in love with the Communication and Journalism (COJO) department because it felt like I was getting a quality education from some pretty amazing professors. Unfortunately, as my education went on, I would have to see some of my favorite professors leave due to budget cuts.
Now that my senior year is approaching I am really seeing how these changes effect the students in the department. Going into next year the COJO department is seeing two valuable professors leave, leaving the department with very few journalism specific professors. Even the few professors left will be effected by one leaving on sabbatical for a semester.
Not only is the faculty being effected by these changes, it is also having an affect on the students in the department. I have friends that are going into their junior year in the department that are now left wondering when they will be able to take the classes that they need to graduate on time. There are certain classes that are only offered certain semesters, so if there isn’t a professor to teach that class, some students may be held back from being able to graduate when necessary.
It breaks my heart to see the program that I love so much be effected so negatively due to certain budget cuts. I understand that cuts have to happen somewhere, but it doesn’t make it any easier to sit back and watch happen.
The COJO department has given me a home away from home and it is unfortunate that incoming students may not be able to have as much of an amazing experience as I have had so far. It wouldn’t be so bad if there was some sort of promise that these positions would be filled in a timely manner, but unfortunately that is not the case at this point. The amount of uncertainty amongst faculty and students in the department is unsettling.
With all of this heavy on my mind as I move into my last year in my undergraduate program, I will continue to hope for the best for the COJO department because I will always be happy I chose to attend UW over George Mason for this specific reason.
I will also hope that through all of the bad that is happening in the program, that some good can come from it for the sake of incoming students that also have the same love for journalism.
